Also On Tonight: Borgias vs. Kennedys

Two series chronicling the rise of a pair of Catholic family dynasties begin tonight.

"The Borgias" (Showtime, 9 p.m.) is another gloriously
art-directed costume drama with power stuggles, plenty of sex, swordplay,
treachery and national upheaval. They would have kept "The Tudors" going had
Henry VIII not run out of wives.

The new drama, from Neil Jordan, stars Jeremy Irons as the semi-obscure
Spaniard Rodrigo Borgia, who bought his way into the papacy in 1492 and had to
fight to keep the seat as Pope Alexander VI , among outraged Italians at the
Vatican.

That Irons (and everyone else) speaks in an English accent almost
doesn't seem to matter. Nor that the specifics of the mistresses and battles
particularly true to history. But it rolls along in a manner that becomes more
entertaining each week, and Irons can do the malevolent leader thing with his
eyes closed.

Not hewing to history is what made the History Channel pull the plug on
its expensive eight-episode "The Kennedys" (Reelz, 8 p.m.), which had trouble
finding a home until the little-known movie channel picked it up as its biggest
original presentation. (In Connecticut, Reelz is only carried on Charter Cable, Dish Network,
Direct TV and AT&T U-verse).

Greg Kinnear takes up the JFK impersonation mantle from the likes of Martin Sheen and William DeVane and isn't bad at it. But Barry Pepper is much better as Bobby Kennedy, depicted as a near saint. And as Jackie, Katie Holmes is completely at bay, choosing a new accent every time she speaks, every one of them wrong.

The problem with the story is how JFK is presented - little more than a playboy dunce who was pushed into office by his meddling millionaire father, played strongly but one-dimensionally by the usually good Tom Wilkinson. Written and directed by a team from "24," the series that made torture palatable to U.S. audiences, it's both ably paced but also has a clear underlying agenda. It will play out its eight episodes each night this week until next Sunday.

Alabama, Dierks Bentley, Ronnie Dunn, Sara Evans, Martina McBride, Reba,
Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert,
Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift and Keith Urban and Zac Brown Band with James Taylor
are among the performers in the "46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards"
(CBS, 8 p.m.). Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire co-host the event, live
from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Lambert leads nominees with seven; Chesney and
the Zac Brown Band each got five nominations, with Brown himself getting four
more.

Will the women Huskies get into the national championship as well? They
play their Final Four game today in Indianapolis with UConn vs. Notre Dame
(ESPN, 9 p.m.), preceded by Texas A&M vs. Stanford (ESPN, 7 p.m.).

A shocking turn of events tonight on part three of "Mildred Pierce"
(HBO, 9 p.m.). It's preceded by the first two episodes at 7 p.m. on HBO2.

A new Expedition Week on National Geographic Channel starts tonight with
"Eating with Cannibals" (National Geographic, 9 p.m.) with Piers Gibbon
in the Amazon trying to find if the Biami tribe still has the same diet; and
Trevor Marriott on the case to "Finding Jack the Ripper" (National Geographic, 10 p.m.).

"Addicted to Food" (OWN, Tuesday, 10 p.m.) concentrates on a family-run
rural Texas treatment center for those with food addictions.

Christopher Reeve returns as the Man of Steel in both "Superman - The
Movie" (ION, 6 p.m.) and "Superman II" (ION, 9 p.m.).

Should it be surprising that "Sister Wives" (TLC, 9 p.m.) is followed by
"Strange Sex" (TLC, 10 p.m.)?

"Oprah Behind the Scenes" (OWN, 8 p.m.) looks at the logistics of the
Australia trip. Then the mogul herself concludes her first two part "Master Class"
(OWN, 9 p.m.).

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Roger Catlin is TV critic for the Hartford Courant and writes a daily column about what's on television called TV Eye. He is also on the board of the Television Critics Association. Before all of this, he was rock critic ... read more